Getting in the way

“What CPT tries to do is get in the way,” Greg Rollins of Christian Peacemaker Teams said, introducing an evening presentation by the organization at the Fraser Valley Arts and Peace Festival last November.

“People just basically try to be witnesses to peace, and try to calm down or de-escalate potentially violent situations by being witnesses and sometimes trying to get in the way of someone trying to physically hurt another person or oppress or abuse another person,” he said. “And throughout the years, CPTers have done that and some have been hurt, some have been arrested. More often than not, nothing happens. Tensions run high and then everyone calms down.”

The mic was handed to Nicholas Klausen, a CPTer who worked with a First Nations group in Grassy Narrows, Ont. CPT was invited to support the Anishinabe First Nations people in their effort to protect their land from logging and other non-native practices.

Ontario, admittedly, is a less exotic locale than Colombia or Palestine, but the work done at Grassy Narrows was of the same vein, with the same purpose, to stand between and prevent the outbreak of physical harm that occurs when people allow ideologies to overcome their sense of humanity.

The slides suddenly switched to pictures from Colombia, and then on to Iraq and Hebron. There were more firearms in these photos, and the physical threats faced by CPTers in these areas more obvious.

The four CPTers on the stage were peppered with questions about training, logistics, trip durations, and the like. And just when it seemed the audience had exhausted their checklists of queries, someone spoke up.

“Spiritually . . .” The man paused. “Spiritually, what does it take to insert yourself into a potentially dangerous situation? I mean, it seems to go against human nature . . .”

The CPTers exchanged glances, and Klausen was the first to respond. “I don’t mean to downplay it, but risk is sometimes overstated,” he said. “I look at it like a statistician. According to the stats, I’m coming home.”

One of the Colombia representatives reached for the mic. “We’re young and idealistic,” he said with a wry smile. His comment was met with laughter.

It was mentioned that one could also argue a theology that supports non-violent intervention, but adherence to a theology is abstract and rarely prompts a person to walk between two men preparing for a fist fight in Palestine. Further comments revealed that to put yourself in harm’s way, you must consciously choose not to think about it.

Essentially, the four peacemakers on the stage were revealing a subconscious and fundamental comprehension of Ron Sider’s 1984 challenge to the Mennonite World Conference in Strasbourg, France (the challenge that led to CPT’s founding): “Unless we are ready to die developing new nonviolent attempts to reduce conflict, we should confess that we never really meant that the cross was an alternative to the sword . . .”

Imagine how many more people could experience love if we exchanged logic and cynicism for a living, breathing practice of “getting in the way” for the practice of peace?

Columbia Bible College, along with Langley Mennonite Fellowship, Mennonite Central Committee B.C., and Ploughshares Fraser Valley, sponsored the annual Fraser Valley Arts & Peace Festival, Nov. 4–12, 2006.

—Andrea Ykema, CBC student